Slingshot side saddle substructure

ABSTRACT

The drilling rig includes a first substructure and a second substructure. The second substructure is positioned generally parallel to and spaced apart from the first substructure and generally the same height as the first substructure. The drilling rig further includes a drill floor coupled to the first and second substructures, where the drill floor positioned substantially at the top of the first and second substructures.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. application Ser. No.14/616,234 filed Feb. 6, 2015, which is a continuation in part whichclaims priority from U.S. application Ser. No. 14/180,049 filed Feb. 13,2014, itself a non-provisional application which claims priority fromU.S. provisional application No. 61/764,259 filed Feb. 13, 2013.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to drilling rigs, andspecifically to slingshot rig structures for land drilling in thepetroleum exploration and production industry.

BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE

Land-based drilling rigs may be configured to be traveled from locationto location to drill multiple wells within the same area known as awellsite. In certain situations, it is necessary to travel across analready drilled well for which there is a well-head in place. Further,mast placement on land-drilling rigs may have an effect on drillingactivity. For example, depending on mast placement on the drilling rig,an existing well-head may interfere with the location of land-situatedequipment such as, for instance, existing wellheads, and may alsointerfere with raising and lowering of equipment needed for operations.

SUMMARY

The present disclosure provides for a land based drill rig. The landbased drill rig may include a first and a second lower box, the lowerboxes positioned generally parallel and spaced apart from each other.The land based drill rig may further include a drill floor. The drillfloor may be coupled to the first lower box by a first strut, the firstlower box and first strut defining a first substructure. The drill floormay also be coupled to the second lower box by a second strut, thesecond lower box and second strut defining a second substructure. Thestruts may be hingedly coupled to the drill floor and hingedly coupledto the corresponding lower box such that the drill floor may pivotbetween an upright and a lowered position. The drill floor may include aV-door oriented to generally face one of the substructures.

The present disclosure also provides for a land based drilling rig. Theland based drilling rig may include a first and a second lower box, thelower boxes positioned generally parallel and spaced apart from eachother. The land based drill rig may further include a drill floor. Thedrill floor may be coupled to the first lower box by a first strut, thefirst lower box and first strut defining a first substructure. The drillfloor may also be coupled to the second lower box by a second strut, thesecond lower box and second strut defining a second substructure. Thestruts may be hingedly coupled to the drill floor and hingedly coupledto the corresponding lower box such that the drill floor may pivotbetween an upright and a lowered position. The drill floor may include aV-door oriented to generally face one of the substructures. The landbased drilling rig may further include a mast coupled to the drillfloor. The land based drilling rig may further include a tank supportstructure affixed to the first or second substructure. The tank supportstructure may include a tank and mud process equipment. The land baseddrilling rig may further include a grasshopper positioned to carrycabling and lines to the drilling rig. The grasshopper may be positionedto couple to the drill floor generally at a side of the drill floor, andthe side of the drill floor to which the grasshopper couples may facetowards the first or second substructure

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The summary and the detailed description are further understood whenread in conjunction with the appended drawings. For the purpose ofillustrating the present disclosure, there are shown in the drawingsexemplary embodiments of said disclosure; however, the disclosure is notlimited to the specific methods, compositions, and devices disclosed. Inaddition, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale. In thedrawings:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation from the driller's side of a drilling rigconsistent with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 2 is an overhead view of a drilling rig consistent with at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a drilling rig consistent with at leastone embodiment of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The present disclosure may be understood more readily by reference tothe following detailed description, taken in connection with theaccompanying figures, which form a part of this disclosure. It is to beunderstood that this disclosure is not limited to the specific devices,methods, applications, conditions or parameters described and/or shownherein, and that the terminology used herein is for the purpose ofdescribing particular embodiments by way of example only and is notintended to be limiting of the present disclosure. Also, as used in thespecification, including the appended claims, the singular forms “a,”“an,” and “the” include the plural, and reference to a particularnumerical value includes at least that particular value, unless thecontext clearly dictates otherwise. The term “plurality,” as usedherein, means more than one.

FIG. 1 depicts a side elevation of drilling rig 10 from the “driller'sside” consistent with at least one embodiment of the present disclosure.Drilling rig 10 may include drill rig floor 20, right substructure 30,and left substructure 40. Right and left substructures 30, 40 maysupport drill rig floor 20. Mast 50 may be coupled to drill rig floor20. As would be understood by one having ordinary skill in the art withthe benefit of this disclosure, the terms “right” and “left” as usedherein are used only to refer to each separate substructure to simplifydiscussion, and are not intended to limit this disclosure in any way.V-door side 22 of drilling rig 10 may be located over right substructure30. The V-door side 52 of mast 50 may correspondingly face rightsubstructure 30. Pipe handler 24 may be positioned to carry pipingthrough a V-door as understood in the art positioned on V-door side 22of drilling rig 10. In some embodiments, grasshopper 26 may bepositioned to carry cabling and lines to drilling rig 10. In otherembodiments (not shown), V-door side 22 and mast V-door side may faceleft substructure 40. In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 1, blowout preventer 90 may be located between left substructure 40 and rightsubstructure 30, i.e. drilling rig 10 may be centered over a wellbore.

In some embodiments, tank support structure 80 and tanks 70 may beincluded in drilling rig 10. Tank support structure 80 may be affixed toright substructure 30 or left substructure 40 by means known to those ofordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosure,including, but not limited to, welding and bolting. As shown in FIG. 1,tank support structure 80 may be affixed to left substructure 40. Tanksupport structure 80 may be located on the opposite substructure fromV-door side 22 of drilling rig 10. Tanks 70 may, for example, be mudtanks, auxiliary mud tanks, or other tanks useful in drilling operationsand may be located within tank support structure 80. In someembodiments, mud process equipment 100 may also be mounted within tanksupport structure 80. Mud process equipment may include, for example,shakers, filters, and other equipment associated with the use ofdrilling mud.

FIG. 2 depicts an overhead view of drilling rig 10 consistent with atleast one embodiment of the present disclosure in which V-door side 22of drilling rig 10, drilling rig floor 20, and tank support structure 80are shown. In some embodiments, choke manifold 102 may likewise belocated on the rig floor. In some embodiments, accumulator 104 maylikewise be located on the rig floor. In some embodiments, accumulator104 may be a Koomey Unit as understood in the art.

In some embodiments, substructures 30, 40 may be fixed as depicted inFIGS. 1, 2. In some embodiments, as depicted in FIG. 3, substructures30′, 40′, may pivotably support drill rig floor 20. Drill rig floor 20may be pivotably coupled to one or more lower boxes 130 by a pluralityof struts 140 together forming substructures 30′, 40′. Lower boxes 130may support drill rig floor 20. Lower boxes 130 may be generallyparallel to each other and spaced apart. Struts 140 may be hingedlycoupled to drill rig floor 20 and to lower boxes 130. In someembodiments, struts 140 may be coupled to lower boxes 130 and drill rigfloor 20 such that they form a bar linkage therebetween, allowingrelative motion of drill rig floor 20 relative to lower boxes 130 whilemaintaining drill rig floor 20 parallel to lower boxes 130. Thus, drillrig floor 20 may be moved from an upper position as shown in FIG. 3 to alower position while remaining generally horizontal.

In some embodiments, the movement of drill rig floor 20 may be driven byone or more hydraulic cylinders 150. In some embodiments, when in theupright position, one or more diagonals 160 may be coupled between drillrig floor 20 and lower boxes 130 to, for example and without limitation,maintain drill rig floor 20 in the upright position.

In some embodiments, with reference to FIGS. 1-3, as they are mounteddirectly to a substructure (30 or 40) of drilling rig 10, one or morepieces of equipment may travel with drilling rig 10 during a skiddingoperation. For example and without limitation, equipment may includetanks 70, mud process equipment 100, choke manifold 102, accumulator104, mud gas separators, process tanks, trip tanks, drill line spoolers,HPU's, VFD, or driller's cabin 106. As such any pipe or tubingconnections between or taken from tanks 70, mud process equipment 100,choke manifold 102, and/or accumulator 104 may remain connected duringthe skidding operations. This arrangement may allow, for example, morerapid rig disassembly (“rigging-down”) and assembly (or “rigging-up”) ofdrilling rig 10 before and after a skidding operation.

Additionally, by facing V-door side 22 of drilling rig 10 toward one ofthe substructures 30, 40, equipment and structures that pass through theV-door 23 or to drilling floor 20 from V-door side 22 of drilling rig 10may, for example, be less likely to interfere with additional wells inthe well field.

One having ordinary skill in the art with the benefit of this disclosurewill understand that the specific configuration depicted in FIGS. 1-3may be varied without deviating from the scope of this disclosure.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that numerous changes andmodifications can be made to the preferred embodiments of the presentdisclosure and that such changes and modifications can be made withoutdeparting from the spirit of said disclosure. It is, therefore, intendedthat the appended claims cover all such equivalent variations as fallwithin the true spirit and scope of said disclosure.

1. A land based drilling rig comprising: a first and second lower box,the lower boxes positioned generally parallel and spaced apart from eachother; a drill floor coupled to the first lower box by a first strut,the first lower box and first strut defining a first substructure, thedrill floor coupled to the second lower box by a second strut, thesecond lower box and second strut defining a second substructure, thestruts hingedly coupled to the drill floor and hingedly coupled to thecorresponding lower box such that the drill floor may pivot between anupright and a lowered position, the drill floor including a V-door, theV-door oriented perpendicularly to a long axis of one of thesubstructures; and a first and second hydraulic cylinder, the first andsecond hydraulic cylinders connected to the drill floor and the lowerbox.
 2. The land based drilling rig of claim 1, further comprising amast coupled to the drill floor.
 3. The land based drilling rig of claim2, wherein the mast further comprises a V-door side and wherein theV-door side of the mast faces the first or second substructure.
 4. Theland based drilling rig of claim 1, further comprising a tank supportsubstructure coupled to the first or second substructure.
 5. The landbased drilling rig of claim 4, wherein the tank support substructurefurther comprises a tank.
 6. The land based drilling rig of claim 5,wherein the tank is a mud tank.
 7. The land based drilling rig of claim4, wherein the tank support substructure further comprises mud processequipment.
 8. The land based drilling rig of claim 7, wherein the mudprocess equipment comprises at least one of a shaker or a filter.
 9. Theland based drilling rig of claim 1, further comprising a grasshopperpositioned to carry cabling and lines to the drilling rig, thegrasshopper positioned to couple to the drill floor generally at a sideof the drill floor, and the side of the drill floor to which thegrasshopper couples is oriented perpendicularly to a long axis of thefirst or second substructure.
 10. The land based drilling rig of claim1, wherein the first and second substructures are adapted to be traveledthrough a wellsite.
 11. The land based drilling rig of claim 1, furthercomprising a choke manifold.
 12. The land based drilling rig of claim 1,further comprising an accumulator.
 13. The land based drilling rig ofclaim 12, wherein the accumulator comprises a Koomey Unit.
 14. The landbased drilling rig of claim 1, further comprising one or more of a drillline spooler, an HPU, a VFD, a driller's cabin, hydraulic unit, triptank, process tank, or mud gas separator adapted to be traveled with theland based drilling rig.
 15. (canceled)
 16. The land based drilling rigof claim 14, wherein the drill line spooler, HPU, VFD, driller's cabin,hydraulic unit, trip tank, process tank, or mud gas separator is mounteddirectly to the first substructure or second substructure.
 17. The landbased drilling rig of claim 1, further comprising a diagonal coupledbetween the drill floor and the lower boxes.
 18. A method comprising:positioning a first and second lower box generally parallel and spacedapart from each other; coupling a drill floor to the first lower box bya first strut, the first lower box and first strut defining a firstsubstructure, the drill floor including a V-door, the V-door orientedperpendicularly to a long axis of one of the substructures; coupling thedrill floor to the second lower box by a second strut, the second lowerbox and second strut defining a second substructure, the struts hingedlycoupled to the drill floor and hingedly coupled to the correspondinglower box; pivoting the drill floor between an upright and a loweredposition using a first and second hydraulic cylinders, the first andsecond hydraulic cylinders connected to the lower box.
 19. The method ofclaim 18 further comprising: pivoting the drill floor between thelowered position and the upright position using the first and secondhydraulic cylinders.
 20. The method of claim 19 further comprising afterthe step of pivoting the drill floor between the lowered position andthe upright position: coupling a diagonal between the drill floor andthe lower boxes.
 21. The method of claim 18, further comprising couplinga mast to the drill floor.
 22. The method of claim 21, wherein the mastfurther comprises a V-door side and wherein the V-door side of the mastis oriented perpendicularly to a long axis of one of the substructures.23. The method of claim 18, further comprising coupling a tank supportsubstructure to the first or second substructure.
 24. The method ofclaim 23, wherein the tank support substructure further comprises atank.
 25. The method of claim 24, wherein the tank is a mud tank. 26.The method of claim 23, wherein the tank support substructure furthercomprises mud process equipment.
 27. The method of claim 26, wherein themud process equipment comprises at least one of a shaker or a filter.28. The method of claim 18, further comprising positioning a grasshopperto carry cabling and lines to the drilling rig, the grasshopperpositioned to couple to the drill floor generally at a side of the drillfloor, and the side of the drill floor to which the grasshopper couplesoriented perpendicularly to a long axis of the first or secondsubstructure.
 29. The method of claim 18, further comprising travelingthe first and second substructures through a wellsite.
 30. The method ofclaim 18, further comprising traveling one or more of an accumulator,choke manifold, drill line spooler, HPU, VFD, driller's cabin, hydraulicunit, trip tank, process tank, or mud gas separator with the first andsecond substructures.